Apparatus for cooling air.



No. 995,992. I -PATENTED AUG. 11, 1908.

' I 0. CHASE.

APPARATUS FOR 00011199 AIR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 6, 1907.

"UNITED STATES P TEN F C q ooNFUcIUs cnAsE,

OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HAILF TO WILLARD E. ROBINSON, 0F WINCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

ArrAn Tos FOR'CO'OLING Am.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 6, 1907. Serial No. 400,917

- ticles, and to cool bodies'of water or other fluids.

' other. A circulating medium having a low- A secondary object is to provide such a cooling device which will automatically main;

tain a circulation of the air, water or'other fluid to be cooled so that all parts of the chamber or space containing the fluid acted upon will be maintained at nearly a uniform tem mature, and, when the fluid is air, will be led in all parts with dry, ure air.

The apparatus consists o a pipe coiled helically so as to make practically a cylinder,

and which is held substantially vertical or at least so nearly upright that one end of the coil or cylinder is appreciably higher than the temperture is forced through the pipe, which is so supported that both ends of the cylindrical space inclosed by the coil areopen and free for the passage of theair or other fluid being acted on.

Of the accom anying drawings,Figure 1 represents in elevation, an apparatus embodying the rinciples of my invention, a plied for coo ing, purifying and drying t e air contained in aninclosed space, such as a preserving chamberor room of a dwelling ouse. Fig. 2 represents a fragmentary vertical section, showing the appearance of the pipe after it has been maintained at a low temperature sufficiently long to become coated with frost or ice. Fig. 3 represents a I horizontal sectional view of the same.

The,same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

As shown in the drawings, I provide a cylinder or tube constructed from. a pipe 0 cylindrical air space (I which is open at the teriori The inlet end of the coiled pipe. is connected with a pump e which draws circulating fluid from a reservoir f. This fluid may of course be any of those commonly used inrefrigeration, and preferably has a temperature' .lower than the freezing point of water. Ordinarily it would be a brine formed by the meltin of a mixture of ice and salt in the tank f his reservoir and pump may be located at any convenient place near to or at a distance from the chamber to be cooled. On the inlet ipe of the coil is a thermometer g by whic the temperatureof the freezing mixture in the coil may be indi' cated.

7 When the apparatus -is' employed in perv throug the coil close to one-sidet ereof and parallel to its axis in a straight line, it affords practically no obstruction to the interiorv top and bottom and is unobstructed in its ini Patented Aug. 11, 1908. f a

s ace (1, nor impediment to the free-flow of air through the same. The coil is held with its axis as nearly vertical as possible, or at any rate, in other than a horizontal position, so that the air contained in the space d will, as it becomes chilled, fall and be discharged from the bottom of the ace. I

As the circulating flui in the pipe 'is a freezing mixture, the outside of the pipe very quickly becomes covered with moisture recipitated from the air, which, freezing, orms a frost. This-icy rcovering increasing 'with successive deposits of moisture, causes the convolutions to merge into one another and wholly fills the spaces between them, vas indicated in Figs. 2 and 3, where the letter 1', represents the icy coating. Thus the coil becomes in effect a continuous tube of ice,

or in other words, an icy air flue.

- The automatic action of the coil in inducing a circulation and cooling of the air will be now understood. First, the air contained within the ice tube is chilled and by its increased density and weight, falls. This leaves a partial vacuum at the top of the tube into which the surrounding 'air flows from all directions. This air becoming in turn chilled, forces out the air already within the tube, causing it to flow from the bottom thereof and pass in all directions into the outer space. This action continues indefinitely, the ice tube acting as a pump,.continually drawing warm air from above, forcing it downward, and discharging cold air from the bottom.

The air as it becomes warmed in the surrounding space, absorbs the moisture and impurities of the room, but when chilled by contact with the walls of the tube, loses its.

capacity to contain so much moisture and. causes the excess to be deposited as a frost. As the particles of moisture form themselves about whatever grains of dust or other impurities or disease germs there may be in the air, these impurities are deposited at the same time, so that the air is at once dried, cooled and purified. Owing to this automatic action, the entire body of air in the room 1s, within a brief time, drawn through the tube and made very dry, pure and cold, while the ice coating is loaded with all the disease germs, dust and other impurities formerly floating freely in the air. By stopping the fiow of the freezing mixture through the (pipe for a short period, or forcing a warm flui through the same, the ice coating is melted from the coil and caused to drop into the pan, by which it may readily be safely renkiloved. lThe nfielteid ice is conducted from t epant rou a ri i epto adr well, where it is abs orbed bg 13h earth. y

It is to be understood that this ap aratus is not confined in its application to t e cooling, drying and purifying of air, but it may be used for chilling bodies of water and other fluids. When immersed in water, the coil becomes coated with clear ice, forming an ice tube, which acts upon the water in the same the manner already described, and indicated Y by the arrows in Fig. 1.

I claim:

1. A cooling apparatus, consisting of a helical coil of ipe ex osed both Within and without the he ix to t e outer encompassing medium, and having its convolutions separated by spaces less than the thickness of the pipe, means for causing a freezing fluid to flow through the pipe, whereby the moisture of the surrounding medium is caused to condense, and freeze on the pipe, filling the spaces between the convolutions, and a support holding the coil substantially 11 right with provisions for free flow longituinally into, through, and out of, the same of the surrounding medium, whereby the latter is caused automatically to flow toward the top of, into, downwardly through, and out of the coil.

2. A device for cooling and producing automatically a circulation of air or other fluid, consisting of a pipe through which a freezing fluid is circulate coiled so as to inclose a cylindrical space and supported so that such space is open at both ends, the coils being so close together as to cause the frost and ice formed on the pipe by the freezing of moisture deposited from the air to stop the interstices, whereby air is prevented from flowing between the convolutions of the coil and is compelled to enter the top of'the coil, pass downward within the same as it becomes chilled, and emerge from the bottom.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

CONFUCIUS CHASE.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR H. BROWN, A. C. RATIGAN. 

